GORHAM – After decades of public service in his hometown, Burleigh Loveitt is stepping aside. He will not seek re-election to the Town Council in November.

“It’s time for somebody else to step forward,” Loveitt said last week.

Loveitt, who began his stint on the Town Council in 1975, has served during a time of explosive growth and change in Gorham. Mike Phinney, chairman of the Gorham Town Council, said Loveitt has helped Gorham grow into this new century.

“He’s put in countless hours over decades for the community,” he said. “He’s a great steering force behind the council.”

Loveitt, known for his quick wit and colorful quips, has served numerous – but not all consecutive – terms on the Town Council, several years as its chairman. But in an interview last week, he didn’t recall just how many.

“I don’t carve notches in my pistol handle,” he said.

Loveitt, 63, launched his political career 35 years ago when he was first elected to the council.

“I’ve been active in town government since 1975,” Loveitt said.

Dick Boyman of Gorham, a veteran councilor who served with Loveitt, recalled Loveitt’s first campaign. Boyman was running for re-election and always had strong backing.

“Burleigh beat me in his first run,” Boyman said.

“But Burleigh has been a good councilor, a hard worker,” he said.

Loveitt, who is a lifelong resident of Gorham, graduated from its high school in 1965. He said since his youth, he aspired to serve Gorham. Besides the Town Council, he has been on two comprehensive planning committees, a charter commission and the Planning Board.

Loveitt said he would “live out his dotage privately instead of on camera.” His wife, Deborah Loveitt, has retired as principal at Falmouth Middle School. They have three children and three grandchildren.

“We’re going to camp, go sailing, skiing,” Loveitt said, “and cut wood.”

Sailing is his hobby and he has rebuilt three sailboats. He enjoys cruising along the Maine coast and recently spent three weeks in Penobscot Bay.

Utilizing wind power, he doesn’t spend much money for fuel. But, he said, the hobby is constant work. “More trouble than a herd of llamas,” Loveitt said.

As a teenager, he worked for the Rines family at Walnut Crest Farm in Gorham.

“I’ve worked since 15,” he said. “I’d like to see the sites everyone tells me about before I need a respirator.”

When Loveitt grew up in Gorham, it was an agricultural town where “everyone knew everybody,” he said.

But the town has grown significantly in recent years. U.S. Census Bureau figures now estimate Gorham’s population at nearly 16,000.

With growth not only in town but also the surrounding region, Gorham has been long plagued by traffic issues. Loveitt served on the Town Council and a study committee that paved the way for the bypass that opened in 2008 after decades of study.

“We got the bypass. That was probably my biggest effort,” Loveitt said.

“I don’t think the bypass would have been built yet without Burleigh’s effort,” Phinney said.

Skirting southerly around Gorham Village, the bypass provides an alternate route for through-traffic like gasoline tankers. A northerly bypass wasn’t funded. Loveitt lately has focused much of his attention on traffic relief for South Gorham and the busy Route 22 corridor.

He’s a member of the regional East-West Corridor Study aimed at finding transportation solutions along the corridor from Gorham through Scarborough and Westbrook to South Portland.

“He’s leading the effort to get a turnpike spur,” Phinney said.

Loveitt described the study as a landmark land use and transportation study.

“I usually hate studies, but I like this one,” Loveitt said.

He expected a favorable outcome of the study and that it would also be helpful to several communities, including Buxton, Hollis and Standish.

In the past decade, Gorham has expanded Baxter Memorial Library, built a new public works garage and a new middle school. A new elementary school is under construction.

Phinney credited Loveitt as instrumental in converting the former Shaw Junior High School into the town’s modern municipal center. Phinney said Loveitt has been the “major driving force” in changes in Gorham. “The new municipal center,” Phinney said. “Everything.”

A veterinarian, Loveitt is the chief executive officer of the Animal Emergency Clinic on Warren Avenue in Portland. Founder and owner of Edgewood Animal Hospital in Gorham, Loveitt said he has turned it over to his partner. Loveitt also plans to hand over the reins of his animal hospital in Hollis to veterinarian employees.

Reminiscing from his seat in the Town Council chamber last week, Loveitt said politics has been a “treat. ” But, he said, a local politician has to regularly face the town’s people.

He recalled long ago days when village pundits gathered at a downtown coffee shop and when local political arguments could be hot.

“Some days I had to duck and run,” he said with a laugh, explaining he didn’t know whether a cup of coffee would be handed to him or thrown at him.

Boyman said serving on the Town Council is a tough job. “He paid his dues,” said Boyman.

“The hardest thing to do is stop when things are going well,” Loveitt said. “It’s knowing when to step back.”

Loveitt cited the many solid citizens in Gorham through the years and those who were role models – his dad, Burleigh P. Loveitt; father-in-law John Alden; and his wife’s grandfather, Austin Alden, who was a town selectman.

“I think Gorham is a really nice town,” he said. “I’m not going away mad. I’m just going away.”

Burleigh Loveitt waves to a resident last week at Gorham Municipal Center. After decades of service, Loveitt is not seeking re-election to the Town Council.
Staff photo by Robert Lowell